Brecht Plays 8: The Antigone of Sophocles; The Days of the Commune; Turandot or the Whitewasher's Congress: The Antigone of Sophocles , The Days of the Comm (World Classics)
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1938
January: in Moscow Meyerhold’s avant-garde theatre is abolished. March: Hitler takes over Austria without resistance. It becomes part of Germany. May 21: premiere of scenes from Brecht’s Fear and Misery of the Third Reich in a Paris hall. Autumn: Munich Agreement, by which Britain, France and Italy force Czechoslovakia to accept Hitler’s demands. In Denmark Brecht writes the first version of Galileo. In Moscow Koltsov disappears into arrest after returning from Spain.
1939
March: Hitler takes over Prague and the rest of the Czech territories. Madrid surrenders to Franco; end of the Civil War. Eisler has emigrated to New York. April: the Brechts leave Denmark for Stockholm. Steffin follows. May: Brecht’s Svendborg Poems published. His father dies in Germany. Denmark accepts Hitler’s offer of a Non-Aggression Pact. August 23: Ribbentrop and Molotov agree Nazi-Soviet Pact. September 1: Hitler attacks Poland and unleashes Second World War. Stalin occupies Eastern Poland, completing its defeat in less than three weeks. All quiet in the West. Autumn: Brecht writes Mother Courage and the radio play Lucullus in little over a month. November: Stalin attacks Finland.
1940
Spring: Hitler invades Norway and Denmark. In May his armies enter France through the Low Countries, taking Paris in mid-June. The Brechts hurriedly leave for Finland, taking Steffin with them. They aim to travel on to the US, where Brecht has been offered a teaching job in New York at the New School. July: the Finnish writer Hella Wuolijoki invites them to her country estate, which becomes the setting for Puntila, the comedy she and Brecht write there.
1941
April: premiere of Mother Courage in Zurich. May: he gets US visas for the family and a tourist visa for Steffin. On 15th they leave with Berlau for Moscow to take the Trans-Siberian railway. In Vladivostok they catch a Swedish ship for Los Angeles, leaving just nine days before Hitler, in alliance with Finland, invades Russia. June: Steffin dies of tuberculosis in a Moscow sanatorium, where they have had to leave her. July: once in Los Angeles, the Brechts decide to stay there in the hope of film work. December: Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brings the US into the war. The Brechts become ‘enemy aliens’.
1942
Spring: Eisler arrives from New York. He and Brecht work on Fritz Lang’s film Hangmen Also Die. Brecht and Feucht-wanger write The Visions of Simone Machard; sell film rights to MGM. Ruth Berlau takes a job in New York. August: the Brechts rent a pleasant house and garden in Santa Monica. Autumn: Germans defeated at Stalingrad and El Alamein. Turning point of World War 2.
1943
Spring: Brecht goes to New York for three months – first visit since 1935 – where he stays with Berlau till May and plans a wartime Schweik play with Kurt Weill. In Zurich the Schauspielhaus gives world premieres of The Good Person of Szechwan and Galileo. November: his first son Frank is killed on the Russian front.
1944
British and Americans land in Normandy (June); Germans driven out of France by end of the year. Heavy bombing of Berlin, Hamburg and other German cities. Brecht works on The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and with H. R. Hays on The Duchess of Malfi. His son by Ruth Berlau, born prematurely in Los Angeles, lives only a few days. Start of collaboration with Charles Laughton on English version of Galileo.
1945
Spring: Russians enter Vienna and Berlin. German surrender; suicide of Hitler; Allied military occupation of Germany and Austria, each divided into four Zones. Roosevelt dies; succeeded by Truman; Churchill loses elections to Attlee. June: Private Life of the Master Race (wartime adaptation of Fear and Misery scenes) staged in New York. August: US drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrenders. Brecht and Laughton start discussing production of Galileo.
1946
Ruth Berlau taken to hospital after a violent breakdown in New York. Work with Auden on Duchess of Malfi, which is finally staged there in mid-October – not well received. The Brechts have decided to return to Germany. Summer: A. A. Zhdanov re-affirms Stalinist art policies: Formalism bad, Socialist Realism good. Eisler’s brother Gerhart summoned to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee. November: the Republicans win a majority in the House. Cold War impending.
1947
FBI file on Brecht reopened in May. Rehearsals begin for Los Angeles production of Galileo, with Laughton in the title part and music by Eisler; opens July 31. Brecht’s HUAC hearing October 30; a day later he leaves the US for Zurich.
1948
In Zurich renewed collaboration with Caspar Neher. Production of Antigone in Chur, with Weigel. Berlau arrives from US. Summer: Puntila world premiere at Zurich Schauspielhaus. Brecht completes his chief theoretical work, the Short Organum. Travel plans hampered because he is not allowed to enter US Zone (which includes Augsburg and Munich). Russians block all land access to Berlin. October: the Brechts to Berlin via Prague, to establish contacts and prepare production of Mother Courage.
1949
January: success of Mother Courage leads to establishment of the Berliner Ensemble. Collapse of Berlin blockade in May followed by establishment of West and East German states. Eisler, Dessau and Elisabeth Hauptmann arrive from US and join the Ensemble.
1950
Brecht gets Austrian nationality in connection with plan to involve him in Salzburg Festival. Long-drawn-out scheme for Mother Courage film. Spring: he and Neher direct Lenz’s The Tutor with the Ensemble. Autumn: he directs Mother Courage in Munich; at the end of the year The Mother with Weigel, Ernst Busch and the Ensemble.
1951
Selection of A Hundred Poems is published in East Berlin. Brecht beats off Stalinist campaign to stop production of Dessau’s opera version of Lucullus.
1952
Summer: at Buckow, east of Berlin, Brecht starts planning a production of Coriolanus and discusses Eisler’s project for a Faust opera.
1953
Spring: Stalin dies, aged 73. A ‘Stanislavsky conference’ in the East German Academy, to promote Socialist Realism in the theatre, is followed by meetings to discredit Eisler’s libretto for the Faust opera. June: quickly suppressed rising against the East German government in Berlin and elsewhere. Brecht at Buckow notes that ‘the whole of existence has been alienated’ for him by this. Khrushchev becomes Stalin’s successor.
1954
January: Brecht becomes an adviser to the new East German Ministry of Culture. March: the Ensemble at last gets its own theatre on the Schiffbauerdamm. July: its production of Mother Courage staged in Paris. December: Brecht awarded a Stalin Peace Prize by the USSR.
1955
August: shooting at last begins on Mother Courage film, but is broken off after ten days and the project abandoned. Brecht in poor health.
1956
Khrushchev denounces Stalin’s dictatorial methods and abuses of power to the Twentieth Party Congress in Moscow. A copy of his speech reaches Brecht. May: Brecht in the Charité hospital to shake off influenza. August 14: he dies in the Charité of a heart infarct.
1957
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, The Visions of Simone Machard and Schweyk in the Second World War produced for the first time in Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Warsaw respectively.
The Antigone of Sophocles
A version for the stage after Hölderlin’s translation
Collaborator: Caspar Neher
Translator: David Constantine
Characters:
TWO SISTERS
SS MAN
ANTIGONE
ISMENE
CREON
TIRESIAS
HAEMON
GUARDS
THE ELDERS OF THEBES
MESSENGER
MAIDS
PRELUDE
Berlin. April 1945.
Daybreak.
Two sisters come back to their home from the air-raid shelter.
FIRST SISTER:
And when we came up from the air-raid shelter
And the house was whole and in a brighter
Light than daw
n from the fire opposite
It was my sister who first noticed it.
SECOND SISTER:
Sister, why is our door open wide?
FIRST SISTER:
The draught of the fire has hit it from outside.
SECOND SISTER:
Sister, what made the tracks there in the dust?
FIRST SISTER:
Nothing but someone who went up there fast.
SECOND SISTER:
Sister, the sack in the corner there, what’s that?
FIRST SISTER:
Better that something’s there than something’s not.
SECOND SISTER:
A joint of bacon, sister, and a loaf of bread.
FIRST SISTER:
That’s not a thing to make me feel afraid.
SECOND SISTER:
Sister, who’s been here?
FIRST SISTER:
How should I know that?
Someone who’s treated us to something good to eat.
SECOND SISTER:
But I know! We of little faith! Oh luck
Is on us, sister. Our brother is back.
FIRST SISTER:
Then we embraced each other and were cheerful
For our brother was in the war, and he was well.
And we cut and ate of the bacon and the bread
That he had brought us to feed us in our need.
SECOND SISTER:
Take more for yourself. The factory’s killing you.
FIRST SISTER:
No you.
SECOND SISTER:
It’s easier on me. Cut deeper.
FIRST SISTER:
No.
SECOND SISTER:
How could he come?
FIRST SISTER:
With his unit.
SECOND SISTER:
Now
Where is he, do you think?
FIRST SISTER:
Where they are fighting.
SECOND SISTER:
Oh.
FIRST SISTER:
But there was no noise of fighting to be heard.
SECOND SISTER:
I shouldn’t have asked.
FIRST SISTER:
I didn’t want you scared.
And as we sat there saying nothing a sound came
In through the door that froze the bloodstream.
A screaming from outside.
SECOND SISTER:
Sister, there’s someone screaming. Let’s see who.
FIRST SISTER:
Sit still. You go and see, you get seen too.
So we did not go outside the door
To see what things were happening out there.
But we ate no more either and we did not
Look at each other again but we stood up and got
Ready to go to work as we did daily
And my sister took the plates and I bethought me
And took our brother’s sack to the cupboard
Where his old things are stored.
And I felt, so it seemed, my heartbeat stop:
In there his army coat was hanging up.
Sister, he isn’t in the fight
He’s run for it, he’s cleared out
His war’s over, he has quit.
SECOND SISTER:
Those still there, he’s left them to it.
FIRST SISTER:
They had death lined up for him.
SECOND SISTER:
But he disappointed them.
FIRST SISTER:
There was still an inch or two …
SECOND SISTER:
That was where he crawled through.
FIRST SISTER:
Some still in, he’s left them to it.
SECOND SISTER:
His war’s over, he has quit.
FIRST SISTER:
And we laughed and we were cheerful:
Our brother was out of the war and he was well.
And as we stood there such a sound came
It felt like ice in the bloodstream.
A screaming from outside.
SECOND SISTER:
Sister, who is it screaming outside our door?
FIRST SISTER:
Again they are tormenting folk for pleasure.
SECOND SISTER:
Sister, should we not go and find out who?
FIRST SISTER:
Stay in. You go and find out, you get found out too.
So we waited a while and did not go and see
What the things that were happening outside might be.
Then we had to leave for work and I was the one who saw
What it was outside our door.
Sister, sister don’t go out.
Our brother is home but he is not
Safe and sound but hanging there
From a meat hook. But my sister
Went out of the door
And screamed herself at what she saw.
SECOND SISTER:
They have hanged him, sister. That was
Why he cried out loud for us.
Give me the knife, give it here
And I’ll cut him down so he won’t hang there
And I will carry his body in
And rub him back to life again.
FIRST SISTER:
Sister, leave the knife.
You’ll not bring him back to life.
If they see us standing by him
We’ll get what he got from them.
SECOND SISTER:
Let me go. I didn’t while
They were hanging him. Now I will.
FIRST SISTER:
And as she made for the door
An SS man stood there.
Enter an SS man.
SS MAN:
We know who he is. Say who you are.
He came out of here.
Seems to me very probable
You know that traitor to his people.
FIRST SISTER:
Sir, we are not the ones to question.
We do not know the man.
SS MAN:
So what’s she doing with the knife, her there?
FIRST SISTER:
Then I looked at my sister.
Should she on pain of death go now
And free our brother who
May be dead or no?
Outside Creon’s palace. Daybreak.
ANTIGONE collecting dust in an iron pot:
Sister, Ismene, twin shoot
From the stem of Oedipus, do you know any thing
Error, sad travail, any disgraceful thing
Not visited by the Father of the Earth
On us who have lived to here?
In a long war, one man among many
Eteocles fell, our brother. In the tyrant’s train
He fell young. And younger than him Polynices
Sees his brother pulped under horses’ hooves. Weeping
He rides from an unfinished battle, for this to one
And that to another the battle spook deals when he comes
at him hard
With his just deserts and smashes his hands. Headlong
Already the fugitive
Had crossed the streams of Dirce and breathing again
He sees the seven gates of Thebes still standing, then Creon
There at the rear lashing them into the fight
Seizes him splashed with the blood of his brother and hacks
him to pieces.
Have they told you or have they not told you
What more shall be heaped on Oedipus’
Dwindling breed?
ISMENE:
I did not show myself in the marketplace, Antigone.
No further word has come to me of loved ones
No kind word and no sad one either.
I am not happier and not more troubled.
ANTIGONE:
Hear it from me then. And whether your heart’s
Beat stops or beats
Deeper in misery, show me that.
You with the dust in your collecting hand, you seem
To dye your words with red.
ANTIGONE:
This then: our two brothers
Dragged both into Creon’s war for the grey metal
Against remote Argos and slaughtered both
Shall not be covered both of them with earth.
The one who did not fear the fight, Eteocles
He, it is said, shall be wreathed and buried as is the custom.
Of the other’s though, who has died wretchedly,
Of Polynices’ corpse they say they have
Broadcast it in the city he shall not
Be hidden in any grave and not lamented.
He shall be left unwept without a grave
Sweet dish for the birds. But whosoever
Does anything about this will be stoned.
So tell me then what you will do about it.
ISMENE:
Sister, are you testing me?
ANTIGONE:
Would I have your help?
ISMENE:
In what dangerous endeavour?
ANTIGONE:
To cover him.
ISMENE:
Whom the city has abjured?
ANTIGONE:
Whom they have failed.
ISMENE:
The man in rebellion.
ANTIGONE:
Yes. My brother and also yours.
ISMENE:
Sister, you will be caught in lawlessness.
ANTIGONE:
But not
In faithlessness.
ISMENE:
Unlucky girl, are you impelled
To gather us all below now
Of Oedipus’ stock?
Let be what’s past.
ANTIGONE:
You are younger, you have seen
Less horror. What is past, let be
Does not stay past.
ISMENE:
Think of this too: we are women
And must not make a quarrel against men
Not being strong enough and thus in thrall
In this and much else harsher too. Therefore
I beg them down below whom only earth oppresses
They will forgive me. Under this duress
I will follow the ruler. For doing